Jeffrey D. Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport. If you're an elected official, political operative or anyone else upset at his views, don't go bothering LSUS or LSU System officials about that because these are his own views solely.
This publishes five days weekly with the exception of 7 holidays. Also check out his Louisiana Legislature Log especially during legislative sessions (in "Louisiana Politics Blog Roll" below).

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16.3.13

While there are more hits
with Gov. Bobby
Jindal’s proposal to swap sales for income taxes, there are enough misses
that could derail the change that needs a supermajority in the Louisiana
Legislature.

The plan
would eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes, plus the corporate
franchise tax (in essence a licensing fee based upon corporate capital that is
perhaps the most unfavorable of all the states that have one), in exchange for
raising the state tax rate 1.88 percent and coverage of that to a host of
previously-exempt services. However, several large exemptions will continue to
exist against the entire state sales tax portion, principally concerning the
acquisition of unprepared food, medicines, and utilities. Plus, any person whose
income falls below $20,000 annually will be able to apply for a rebate of up to
$300, and anyone drawing retirement payments such as Social Security can
get a rebate tied to the first $60,000 of income (currently, recipients and
state and local government retirees do not pay income taxes). Finally, it
raises the tax on tobacco products, by $1.05 per pack of cigarettes.

Evaluated on economic terms,
the plan has much going for it. Over the decades, research results continue to demonstrate
that the most reliable path to increased societal wealth comes through systems
relatively light on income taxes compared to sales taxes (nine states currently
have no income taxes). Empirically, states with the lowest income taxes for
decades have seen the most economic growth, while those with the lowest sales
taxes have seen the least growth.

14.3.13

Some presumed candidates for
Louisiana governor in 2015 got called
onto the carpet by state legislators for their alleged overspending on
employee pay raises. The legislative querying produced some campaign propaganda
points favoring certain of them at the expense of others.

The House Appropriations
Committee, in its initial budget review for the next fiscal year, suddenly
seems to have discovered that elected executive branch officials can give these
pay raises, even as “merit” pay raises for other executive branch civil service
classified employees have not happened for four years and for some unclassified
employees even longer. Why this sudden realization that legally these officials
could do this materialized now, from among individuals who wanted
to vote themselves pay increases less than five years ago, remains a
mystery, but became a topic of interrogation for some elected executives.

As they pointed out to
varying degrees extenuating circumstances, such as the need to keep what they
believed were key employees, that they budgeted to be able to do this, and that
attainment of merit standards by employees meant these people deserved this. In
addition, Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon claimed
Department of State Civil Service rules forced him to grant four percent pay
raises when money was available, and Agriculture Commissioner Mike
Strain said the law made him grant raises. These were in reference to
mandated civil
service rules that said certain personnel actions required raises to be
given if money was available. But agency heads have discretion in making these
dollars available: they could have gone to filling more positions or to finance
other activities, so to claim they were “forced” to give raises is an
overstatement.

13.3.13

More information always is better, and in that sense the Public Affairs
Research Council has done a service by producing a guideline for analysis of
whether Louisiana ought to accept federal money with considerable strings
attached to expand Medicaid eligibility. But unfortunately it falls short
conceptually, which makes vulnerable whatever recommendations would stem from
its suggested course of study to the criticisms it levies.

The report
reviews mainly two others from dispassionate, nonpartisan sources that provided
the starting point from which Louisiana officials to date have determined not
to pursue this option. However, some of its critiques also focus on problems
that cropped up in more partisan, less objective analyses (many already
addressed prior to this effort here).

Had the effort stopped just
at pointing out the shortcomings of analyses based upon these several reports,
little value would have come of it. But by then highlighting avenues of data
acquisition and analyses that policy-makers ought to pursue provides for a good
start. If state policy-makers already are not cognizant of these items in need
of periodic review, then this serves as a basic primer on them.

12.3.13

Did Sen. Mary Landrieu commit
political suicide with remarks recently published about her willingness to end tax
breaks for oil companies?

The Democrat has walked,
successfully to date, a fine line in staying on office in a state whose people increasingly
are willing to vote on this basis of ideology, the majority of whose views
poorly fit her own expressed views. To date, she has sustained a myth that she
is a moderate Democrat when in fact she votes very much to the left: her
lifetime American Conservative Union voting record (where a score of 100
equates to a perfect conservative voting record) is barely
above 20.

Yet she has won three
elections and his gunning for a fourth, partly because she has become expert at
peeling off just enough support from those whose interests she typically votes
against, but on the most salient issues to them she sometimes backs them. One
is the oil industry, where historically she has fought attempts to increase the
tax burden on the industry, one understandably important to Louisiana.

11.3.13

Suddenly, if you consider
media reaction being anything close to a genuine reading of public opinion, in
Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne is
the hottest politician in terms of political future. And perhaps it is
conservative Republicans, who have had a rocky relationship with him, who join
the mainstream media here in a kind of wishful thinking that may become reality.

Last month, a poll
came to attention perhaps more because of Dardenne’s place in it than anything
else. In part, it asked public opinion on hypothetical 2014 Senate matchups
featuring Sen. Mary
Landrieu. The Democrat widely is considered, if not the most vulnerable,
one of the most vulnerable senators to lose her seat in the upcoming election.

Although Dardenne’s name
never had been mentioned as a Senate candidate – the most cited names have been
Reps. Bill Cassidy
and John Fleming, former Rep.
Jeff Landry, and recently inserting himself into the discussion, Board of
Elementary and Secondary Education Chairman Chas Roemer – it was included
against Landrieu, and he polled the best. State media outlets made
inquiries, and then a national opinion magazine did a whole story
on the possibility of Dardenne running. The perspicacious The Hayride also weighed
in.

10.3.13

While on the surface a
constitutional amendment to prohibit foisting unfunded mandates onto all local
governments in Louisiana may sound appealing, it’s better public policy not to
hamstring state policy-making in this fashion.

Currently, the Louisiana Constitution
prohibits the state from saddling local governments from certain kinds of these
unless the local government approves and it is willing to pay for them.
However, a number of exceptions exist, separated by school districts and all
others; for examples of the latter, increased pension contributions to pay off
the state’s unfunded accrued liabilities may be passed along because the
Constitution applies this part only to legislation passed essentially after
1991, and the amendment to pay down the UAL became part of the Constitution in
1989. Other civil service legal changes that affect local governments also are
exempted regardless of date enacted, and there are several others.

School districts get a
different set of exemptions; for example, if an unfunded mandate comes down, as
often happens, the Minimum Foundation Program does not have to pay for it. Also
included is anything having to do with implementing accountability, if there is
a cost increase, and there are several others. This part of the Constitution
applies for matters passed essentially only after 2006.

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